Boards discuss Copperas Cove bypass
Posted On: Thursday, Feb. 4 2010 05:41 AM
By Mason W. Canales
Killeen Daily HeraldBELTON – The Killeen-Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization boards met Wednesday to discuss funding strategies for the group's top priority: the proposed Copperas Cove bypass.
"Now for the reason we are all here, to talk about the funding," said Tim Brown, Bell County commissioner and KTMPO policy board chairman.
There are three strategies that KTMPO wants to use as an attempt to fund the U.S. Highway 190 bypass around Copperas Cove, said Jim Reed, Central Texas Council of Governments (CTCOG) executive director.
The Copperas Cove bypass would run east of the city to about a half-mile west of the Lampasas County line near Big Divide Road.
KTMPO, a planning group run by CTCOG, is made up of several elected and city officials within CTCOG.
The estimated cost of the project is roughly $55 million if it is started in 2010, according to a KTMPO document. If it is started in 2013, the cost would total about $62 million; the cost would continue to rise after that.
In order to secure funds, KTMPO can ask for all of Texas Department of the Texas Transportation's Category 3 funding for KTMPO to 2020 upfront, Reed told board members.
Category 3 funding is for national highway systems allocated to Texas for urban area corridor projects.
KTMPO is planning to present the project at a TXDOT trade fair for Category 3 funding next week.
"The impression I got was that this is possible but not probable," Reed said.
A second way to fund the project would be through federal stimulus money, Reed said.
Funding from the stimulus might not materialize due to the federal government cutting spending, said Bill Jones, Temple mayor and KTMPO policy board member.
The third way to get the funding is to have Copperas Cove go out for a bond and then use TxDOT Category 3 funding for the remainder, Reed said.
Copperas Cove could seek about an $8 million bond to help fund the project, said Andrea Gardner, Copperas Cove city manager and KTMPO Technical Committee member.
"I think that is much more doable for the community," said Gardner, comparing the $8 million bond to a $20 million one that was previously predicted by the KTMPO staff.
Multiple options
Reed asked the KTMPO members to support all three plans.
"We are tying to blend these things together to get a project done," said Richard Skopik, TxDOT Waco district engineer. "We need to go to the trade fair with a plan one, plan two and plan three."
Coryell County Judge John Firth, a KTMPO policy board member, agreed that supporting all three plans would benefit the region.
"If we play this united as one force, there is an opportunity for us to all come out with something," Firth said.
If the Copperas Cove bypass is paid for with Category 3 funding, there is a chance that stimulus money could pay for the widening of U.S. 190 from W.S. Young Drive in Killeen to Farm-to-Market 2410 in Harker Heights, Skopik said.
"There is a chance that we can get all three main projects done," Reed said, referring to a project in Temple as well.
Contact Mason W. Canales at
mcanales@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7554. Follow him on Twitter at KDHheights.